• Justin Johansson (13/13) Nov 30 2009 FYI D people.
• bearophile (4/7) Nov 30 2009 We'll see, but I don't believe that. We'll see. CPUs with 30 cores requi...
• Nick Sabalausky (22/28) Nov 30 2009 First of all, when we get up around 30 cores (more or less), we'll be

Justin Johansson <no spam.com> writes:

FYI D people.

Snippet:

Other programming gurus, such as Herb Sutter, lead designer of 
Microsoft's C++/CLI programming language, predict that writing code to 
run on bare metal may come back into fashion, as chip makers find 
themselves unable to keep boosting processor speeds at current rates.

"I think we have maybe five to 10 years left [with Moore's Law]," he 
said. "Optimizations will get very, very sexy again, when people realize 
how we pay for abstractions."

Full article:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141465/Microsoft_s_top_developers_prefer_old_school_coding_methods

Enjoy

Justin Johansson

bearophile <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> writes:

Justin Johansson:
 "I think we have maybe five to 10 years left [with Moore's Law]," he 
 said. "Optimizations will get very, very sexy again, when people realize 
 how we pay for abstractions."

We'll see, but I don't believe that. We'll see. CPUs with 30 cores require a
different kind of optimizations.

Bye,
bearophile

"Nick Sabalausky" <a a.a> writes:

"bearophile" <bearophileHUGS lycos.com> wrote in message 
news:hf0976$v23$1 digitalmars.com...
 Justin Johansson:
 "I think we have maybe five to 10 years left [with Moore's Law]," he
 said. "Optimizations will get very, very sexy again, when people realize
 how we pay for abstractions."

 We'll see, but I don't believe that. We'll see. CPUs with 30 cores require 
 a different kind of optimizations.

First of all, when we get up around 30 cores (more or less), we'll be 
getting right back into the same problem we had a few years back with 
rediculous power consumption and heat generation. Only this time, there will 
be fewer things that can be done about it. But ignoring that...

Fast-forward to that day when there are 30-core CPUs, and grab three 
programs:

A. Something optimized for those 30-cores.
B. Something optimized with traditional techniques.
C. Something like Bazaar.

1. Certainly, A is going to run fastest...except perhaps if the user is 
simultaneously running five other programs that are also optimized for 30 
cores each...or if the user isn't running on a fancy top-of-the-line 30-core 
machine and is only getting by with a cost-effective 8 cores with is more 
than sufficient for their needs...in which cases B can quite realistically 
compete with A.

2. B is still going to kick the shit out of C.

3. Grab a fourth program, that has both trditional optimizations and 30-core 
optimizations, provided that they are both balanced in an intelligent way, 
and that'll probably beat them all, demonstrating that 30-core optimizations 
are be something to suppliment, not replace, traditional optimizations.